Budget Mech Mage, rank 5 in one day.
- Last updated Nov 18, 2015 (Explorers)
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Wild
- 23 Minions
- 7 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Unknown
- Crafting Cost: 800
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 8/17/2015 (Blackrock Launch)
- user-5781808
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Total Deck Rating
152
This is the budget deck I used to get from rank 25 to rank 5 in a single day with a 75% win rate on a brand new account.
It's a twist on the traditional Mech Mage which is far more aggressive by nature. In essence Cogmaster, Clockwork Gnome and several of the cheap Mech cards are replaced with Boulderfist Ogre, Stormwind Champion and other several high mana cost cards.
The curve overall has been heavily increased with the inclusion of Water Elemental and Flamestrike to deal with the large amount of Grim Patron Warriors running around. Denying weapon use with Snowchugger and Water Elemental not only makes your matchups against Patron Warrior a lot more manageable, but you can really feel the difference against Rogues, Paladins and especially Hunter as well, forcing a Skill Command + trade on a Water Elemental always feels great.
Since you are playing a lot of "high" mana Mechs, and have cut most of the cheapest versions, your Goblin Blastmage is not as consistent and having two copies is not guaranteed to be an upgrade, often you might find yourself without the ability to trigger the Battlecry.
To deal with the large amount of aggressive and combo decks on ladder Healbot is a is a necessity when running a more control oriented Mech Mage. You need it to buy you that one extra turn to gather up lethal, or to simply push you out of combo range and keep you on your feet.
The Blowout victories are much further apart compared to using a standard Mech Mage, but what it lacks in burst it makes up in consistency, while also being cheap to make for any new player. In general it's very strong against aggressive decks on ladder while also excels at punishing those that try to "meta-game" against aggro decks. Most players on ladder will use their removal inefficiently to slow down your opening, which is obviously the correct way to play against a normal Mech Mage, but these decks often run dry once you start playing out your 6 and 7 mana minions. Getting Boulderfist Ogre or Stormwind Champion from an early Deathlord aggro tech often seals most games.
Since you are not running the Mad Scientist version with Mirror Entity often you will see players play their tech cards like Kazan Mystic late in the match out of sheer frustration.
Mulligan
The mulligan is in general very dependent on going first or second.
Going first is pretty straight forward, you are looking for a low tempo curve if possible. Noticeable cards to keep are Snowchugger and Mechwarper, these will provide a strong early play regardless of matchup, honorable mentions are Frostbolt and Flamecannon but only if you expect to play against aggro or already have a strong 2 or 3 drop in hand. In general you should try and mulligan everything above 4 mana if you don't already have a 2 and 3 mana minion in hand. The aim is to curve out and play a minion on each turn if possible. If your opening mulligan hand has a 3 mana minion but no 2 mana minion, you should keep the 3 and try to roll the other two cards to get a 2 (be aware that removal and Owl does not count towards your curve in most matchups). You can often rely on your Hero power to cover you in most situations on the second turn, and play the 3 mana minion you kept. The best way to ruin your curve is to mulligan away a strong 3 drop in an attempt to get a 2, and then get stuck with Flamestrike, Boulderfist Ogre and Stormwind Champion with nothing to play for several turns. Consistency is king, KEEP THE 3!
Going second allows you to be far more lenient with your curve, where it can often be correct to keep double 4 mana minions if you have a strong 2 mana minion as well, as you can play the 2, coin into 4 and play 4 again, giving you a massive tempo boost. It can also be correct to keep double 3 with no 2, as you can coin one of them on your second turn. Coining into Harvest Golem on turn two almost always guarantees you have the trigger for Tinkertown the following turn. As a general rule the only time it is good to coin out a 2 mana minion on your first turn is against face Hunters, Eboladin, or in a situation where you have a Mechwarper + a hand full of Mechs and happens to be playing against a very slow class like Priest, that will have a hard time removing it on their second turn.
For the specific macthups you want to look for the following cards, while keeping everything in mind about the curve:
All matchups: Snowchugger, Mechwarper, Harvest Golem, Spider Tank, Tinkertown.
Warrior ctrl: Acidic Swamp Ooze (try and save it for Death's Bite if possible) and Water Elemental.
Warrior Patron: Acidic Swamp Ooze (Always save it for Death's Bite), Water Elemental. I have also been known to keep a Flamestrike in hand if I happen to have a strong 2 and 3 mana minion.
Druid: Just follow the curve.
Rogue: Acidic Swamp Ooze (try and save it for deadly poison or Oil), Water Elemental.
Paladin ctrl: Acidic Swamp Ooze (try and save it for Truesilver, if you draw it late save it for Ashbringer if you don't have an Owl in hand) and Water Elemental.
Eboladin: Owl (for Blessing of Kings), Acidic Swamp Ooze (save it for Truesilver), Antique Healbot and Blastmage. Also keep in mind that Harvest golem is better then Spider Tank in this macthup.
Hunter midrange: Owl (for Mad scientist or Savannah Highmane), Acidic Swamp Ooze and Water Elemental.
Hunter face: Owl (for Scientist), Acidic Swamp Ooze and Healbot
Priest: Owl, Flamecannon (for Dark Cultist) and Shredder.
Mage: Frostbolt (for Mana Wyrm or Mechwarpers openings etc) and Healbot if the rest of your hand is good.
Shaman: Frostbolt (for Flametongue Totem).
Warlock Zoo: Owl (for Void Terror or Void caller), Frostbolt (for Flame Imp and Wrathguard) and Healbot.
Warlock Giants; Owl (for Twilight Drake) and in general sticky minions like Shredder.
If you have any questions to the cards on the list feel free to ask.
I wouldn't replace Stormwind as it allows you to pull out amazing trades or push for lethal. If you have 4 minions on board Stowmwind deals as much Damage as an Argent Commander while providing a much stronger board and a far more resilient body on it's own. Boulderfist is far more interchangeable with other cards, and could probably be changed with alternatives in the 5 and 6 mana slot, but I'm not sure it would be a strict upgrade. The fact that Boulderfist is high health to outlive most AoE while having high attack without being in BGH range often means you can trade efficiently or push for damage as needed. You can certainly try it out and see how it works, just imagine that it was either card when you play it and see what would be more beneficial in the specific situation.
OK Awesome! Thanks!
It is a good starter deck , but i didn't like the double Flamestrike.
I played a lot with Mage , especially Mech Mage , and i also tried to put two flamestrikes.
But what happened is i always drew one early game and it's been a dead card nearly the entire match. I think removing one Flamestrike and adding another Goblin Blastmage would improve the deck.
If you think Goblin wouldnt do much good since you dont have early mechs , i recommend a Mechanical Yeti.
I am pretty new to the game, but I am trying to make this deck because it looks good on a budget, and you did well in your youtube videos. I was able to craft most of the cards except for the owl, azure, and healbot. But I did get some other mechs from card packs that I am using in the deck.
But so far...I can't get past rank 17. Up until 20 it worked fine, then things got tough. Now I'm stuck at 17 lose more than I win. It seems like everyone I play has a golden hero and tons of legendary cards. I am no match against Dr. Boom every round.
I love the deck. Any tips for getting past 17?
I wouldn't advice it, it makes your matchups against Warrior Paladin and Hunter far more difficult, and those are amongst the most common classes on ladder right now. The 2/3 body of Chugger also means it trades really well with most aggro decks.
As a Mage most minions played on turn 1 are fairly easy to deal with, as most of the popular ones like Leper Gnome and Clockwork Gnomes dies to your Hero Power. There is nothing wrong with coining out Mechwarper or Snowchugger to deal with the early aggression, don't worry too much about losing the Mechwarper against aggressive decks, you are not looking to gain huge tempo value from it all you need to do is let it trade, anything beyond that in this matchup is just a bonus. Once past the first few turns you are likely to win if you were able to stabilize as your cards hold more value then your opponents, when he draws and plays another Clockwork Gnome you draw and play Stormwind Champion.
All in all don't worry too much about turn 1 minions, you have plenty of time to win back the game.
I'm in the same boat. I got to 15 with this deck without much trouble (I just started playing, this is my first deck). I win 80% of the games where i get past turn 7, but my losses are all against rush/face decks. How do you counter that without any taunt or anything? They just keep putting out cards with charge and dealing face damage, or putting down 3 minions in one turn where as I can only put down 1.
Against very aggressive decks you spend the first 3-4 turns on slowing down the opponent as much as possible, and then you often simply stop trading and start attacking him directly. Once you have the early upper hand you will put far more pressure on his health with your 4 attack Tinkertown Technician and Piloted Shredder + anything left after the early trades then he can put out, especially since you have Fireballs to close the last gap or a Healbot to push you out of range.
Also be aware that rank 15 this early in the season is very good, and will translate to much higher ranks towards the end of the month.
Thanks for this one! Having great fun for a very budget-constricted player.
A little question though - what would you add next to this deck? One day we'll start to be able to afford more cool cards and will be looking for upgrades :)
The only minor upgrades I would consider for this particular deck is to replace Boulderfist Ogres with Piloted Sky Golem, one Stormwind Champion with Dr. Boom and maybe swap the tech cards depending on your matchups. Cards that can be replaced with other tech cards are Acidic Swamp Ooze and Flamecannon, which are interchangeable.
If you are seeing nothing but Priest, Shaman or Warlock at your current rank, then maybe replacing the Ooze with another Flame Cannon can help you clear out Totem Golem, Dark Cultist, Nerubian Egg etc, while facing only Warrior, Paladin and Hunter you might consider adding in another Ooze or Harrison Jones, or a Kezan Mystic if you are getting a lot of Mages, Hunters and Secret Paladin.
In general replacements and upgrades will depend on your matchups, but the core deck is mostly basic and common cards, so you won't be able to upgrade it much with an expensive collection.
This deck is amazing. I've only been playing Hearthstone for a little over a month, but got some dust in arena runs. I used some of my dust to pick up the few cards I was missing to create this deck. I went from rank 18 to 15 last night without losing once. Got the wins just before this season ended, too. You should really do some more decks for other classes.
This is a very nice starter deck - you can easily upgrade it, but it is strong enough on its own to hold at the mid-ladder levels.
Very well done :)
is there a replacement for the ogre ? I am sure there would be better alternatives since he have no effect at all ?
also I have dr boom,I guess replacing one stormwind with it would be better ?
Boulderfist Ogre doesn't need to have a large flashy effect to be good in this type of deck. The stats means it both survive most AoE and demands a response, all while being below the all important BGH range without being weak to silence, and playing it on curve puts immense pressure on the opponent.
You could replace them with Piloted Sky Golem if you are looking for a small upgrade, and yes Dr. Boom is a reasonable replacement for Stormwind though probably providing a minor improvement as it will mostly end up dying to BGH since it's your only valid target.
thanks for the notes,
final question, are you still using this deck ? if so, is it still working fine ?
I am trying to reach rank 10 before seasons ends to upgrade my chest, I am at rank 11 atm and I run this mech deck , so do you think your deck considered an upgrade to my deck and would help me more ?
Well it looks like you are running the traditional Mech Mage which is far more aggressive. With the new expansion we have been seeing far fewer Grim Patrons on ladder which your deck should be weaker to, so it will mostly depend on what other matchups your are seeing at your current rank. There have been an uprise of the new Token Paladin and Totem Shaman where double Blastmage could be an edge against Paladin and Flamecannon could be a tech card against Totem Golem, on the other hand there have also been an increase in the number of Varian Wrynn Control Warriors at rank 10 to 5, which your deck should be much weaker to compared to this slower version of Mech Mage.
All in all it will depend on what your opponents are playing but this deck should still be able to reach rank 5 without much trouble in the current Meta. You could try it out and see if it pulls in results, but it has to be played in a completely different manner then the deck you are currently running.
Mostly I face totem shamans,Secret/aggro paladins , and facehunter/mid-range hunter
I don't mind playing with completely different style deck, I just want something that can work in general and can climb, will add +1 blasmage in place of azure, and boom in place of stormwind and see how it goes
I will give u a feedback when I test it, and also thanks a lot for ur hlep , I appreciate it
Edit 1 : So I played 17 game in casual with it to test, 9 loses ,8 win , I faced only 2-3 aggro, and rest are mix of druids, mage,and others, dunno what I done wrong ( I will test tomorrow more against aggro and see if it work better or not ) , what is your region btw ?
Any substitute for the Harvest Golem?
Yeah there are couple of substitutions, but I don't think I would consider them upgrades. The closest in value would be cards like BGH, Mind control Tech, Earthen Ring Farseer and the new Silverhand Regent, but they have very little synergy with the deck. One of the main functions for Harvest Golem is to allow a more secured way of getting the battlecry from your Blastmage and Tinkertown, it is also amazing at trading against aggressive decks, where it will sometimes get to trade and kill 3 times.